New program for pre-schoolers
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A new early learning program aimed at pre-school aged children is being expanded in School District 58.
Strong Start is a free drop-in program for children and their parents to participate in activities taught by a qualified early childhood educator in an elementary school setting.
The program opened at Merritt Central Elementary Sept. 21, with programs filled to capacity at Diamondvale and Nicola-Canford Elementary schools.
“Basically, what it’s designed to do is to get children ready for successful kindergarten,” said Merritt Central Elementary school principal, Sandy Fukushima.
The idea is to socialize children with others their age through activities like stories, crafts, games and gym time, as well as a healthy snack.
Parents can bring their children for the full three hours or for just part of the time.
The first visit requires registration, but there is no set schedule or required amount of participation.
Strong Start runs for three hours per day, Monday through Friday, which gives parents a flexible schedule to choose when is convenient for them to drop in.
Often, parents dropping off older children at school will attend the Strong Start activities in the school with their younger children.
“In pre-school, you drop your child off,” said Fukushima. “In this one, the parents are required to stay, so it gives parents the opportunity to pick up some skills around how to interact with their children, what are some reading strategies you can use with your children, and what sorts of craft type things. Plus, it’s also an opportunity for parents to connect with other parents. That’s one significant way that it’s different from pre-school.”
Program instructor, Barb Scapinello, is an early learning educator at Merritt Central Elementary.
She said she enjoys setting up the program at a new school, re-organizing a classroom to accommodate very young children, and getting to know parents who drop in.
“The idea is to make it very, very accessible to parents,” she said, of one of the differences between Strong Start and traditional pre-school.
The program was initiated about three years ago by the ministry of education.
Margaret MacDonald, assistant professor in the education at Simon Fraser University, said it is always a good thing when the ministry develops programs like Strong Start for early learning opportunities.
“They want to allow this access to early learning opportunities, but they’re also looking at this idea of investing in early learning,” she said. “It becomes kind of an accountability model, or a model that looks at things in terms of what we can do to give these children a leg up. There’s information in longitudinal research that says investment in early learning does pay off.”
The measure of sucess in this type of program has more to do with social rather than academic achievement, she said.
Faye Gambler brings her son Kolt Alexander to Strong Start, and said she thinks the program will benefit his future transition to kindergarten.
“I definitely think it’s going to help,” she said.
Strong Start at Merritt Central runs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon, and Thursday from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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